HANGING BY A THREAD/An einem Faden hängen, 2006 - 7

THE START

Paisley & Fürth

Paisley Museum & Art Galleries

Exhibition: September 15 - December 31 2006

Fürth’s Saumweber, Schwabacher Str

Exhibition: April 18 - May 11 2007.

Change of use/Gebrauchswandel
Change of mind/Gesinnungswandel
Change of identity/Identitätswandel
Change of industry/ Industriewandel
Change of place/Ortswechsel

Paisley twinned with the town of Fürth in Southern Germany
in 1969. Glasgow twinned with Nürnberg in 1985. It has been
said that Glasgow is to Paisley as Nürnberg is to Fürth,
in that they have similarly ambiguous relationships, based on their
city/town rivalries. Each of these places has a strong identity
as a result of their individual histories and all of them are currently
undergoing a period of re-definition.

After a visit to Germany and further consideration of the two Scottish
sites, I began to try and identify something that would provide
a link between the individual places. Initially, I thought about
my role as reflecting the essence of that place to enable the inhabitants
to gain a more objective view of where they live. For example, it
seemed to me that the two cities are now trying to project very
strong cultural identities in the 21st century and that this is
the result of a process of re-invention made necessary due to events
that occurred in the first half of the 20th century. In Glasgow’s
case, its declining heavy industries produced circumstances that
gave the city a reputation for poverty and violence, whereas Nürnberg,
can seem inextricably linked to particular words, such as ‘rallies’,
‘laws’ or ‘trials’ and its reputation in
the middle ages as a ‘Reichsstadt’, which influenced
the development of some of the ideas behind the Third Reich. Regarding
the towns, both Paisley and Fürth have rich histories, but
have lost some of their population and their old, established industries
and in many ways, are over-shadowed by their larger neighbours.
Their identities are in danger of disappearing in the present time
and they are seeking new roles. However, they are now unsure of
the nature of their own personality and, like individual people,
sometimes when we try and become someone or something else, the
ghosts of the past re-assert themselves and burn into one’s
retina

I was initially fascinated and then inspired by the company, Brown
and Polson, which was established in Paisley, in the west of Scotland,
in 1842. It produced starch paste, developed for stiffening the
warp threads for the town’s looms. They went on to re-market
and sell this product, as ‘Patent Corn Flour’ calling
it “Paisley Flour” for making the “perfect Shortbread”
This is a remarkable change of use. How tasty had the weavers’
fingers become? Since the Renaissance, Fürth and Nürnberg
had outstanding reputations for manufacturing, e.g. in Nürnberg,
they produced, amongst other things, pocket watches and in Fürth,
mirrors. However, part of the price that was paid for this was detailed
in 1861 by Adolf Küssmaul. As Professor of Medicine in Erlangen,
he noted that industrial mercury poisoning amongst people involved
in mirror production was so bad, that many adult males had lost
a lot, and in some cases all, of their teeth.

Here I am now, having arrived at a point that encompasses lost
teeth and grinding poverty and ranges from extremism to tasty fingers.
Each place has clearly paid a price for its industrial development.
This has prompted me to want to create a series of ‘Fun Houses’
that allow the viewer to not only contemplate each place, but also
to feel its nightmarish qualities…..places where fears and
fantasies are reflected back on oneself. To be concerned with looking
and being in two state of mind.

Created in collaboration with Duncan McLaren, author of 'Personal
Delivery', a blend of autobiography, fiction and contemporary art
published in 1998. He has since written widely about contemporary
art, mainly for 'The Independent on Sunday', 'Art Review', 'Contemporary'
and 'MAP', Scotland_s new art magazine. Approaches from visual artists
provide the starting points for a variety of publications, as well
as for an ongoing project: 'The Casebook of Non-Sherlock Holmes'.
Duncan also writes about authors whose lives and works are already
in the public domain. An investigation into the creativity of Enid
Blyton, 'THIS IS HIS ENID', is currently with his agent.

Having read the above proposal, he writes: 'What initially
fascinates me about this is how the twin challenge of presenting
work that deals with both Scotland/Germany and city/town is approached
head-on and without getting too hung up about the dualities. So
this year the project starts with a bold image of afternoon walk
beside the Documentation Centre in Nürnberg on a mundane modernist
Glasgow walkway, and goes on to make a show of mirrors – a
Nürnberg /Furth motif though that may not be how it strikes
the local gallery-goers - in Paisley Museum & Art Galleries.
It's then a year before the simultaneous exhibitions in Nürnberg
and Fürth in 2007. '